When splitting depends on the dealer’s up-card 1. Splitting fives is likely to leave you with either a lower-value hand, or one that increases your chances of busting later in the hand. This is a great hand and you should double down unless the dealer has a nine, ten or ace. If you split, only three cards can make your hands better than your original pair of fours, a five, six or seven.

The most you can get is 19, a decent total. When you have a pair of fours you can’t go bust with your next hit. Splitting tens is not the percentage call because doing so dismantles a very promising hand that it is very unlikely you will better with either of your split hands. Splitting them gives you a better chance of a competitive hand.

Playing your pair of eights as one hand doesn’t leave you much wriggle room. It’s important at this point to acknowledge that two eights is considered a fairly poor hand in blackjack, whether you split your initial hand or not. Meanwhile, drawing a 10-valued card would necessitate counting both aces as ones, bringing you right back to 12. This means only a nine can take you to 21 on your next card. If you don’t split your aces, one is given a value of one and the other a value of 11.

AcesĬards with a value of ten are plentiful in blackjack, so it makes sense to split a pair of aces. These aren’t rules that mean you will win every time you follow them, but you are more likely to win in the long run if you do so. There are also hands you should never split and some hands where the decision to split is based on what the dealer’s up-card is. In the game of blackjack there are certain hands that probability dictates it is favourable to split.

Blackjack when to split and double down